K-pop has grown in popularity in the past decade, however, there are systemic issues within the industry that still need awareness. The K-pop music industry has several issues let’s break them down into detail. These topics include slave contracts, idol mistreatment, scandals, misogynists, and suicides. These are real issues within the K-Pop industry, and the majority of idols in South Korea go through these issues on the daily basis.
Idol Groups Mistreatment
A few of the entertainment companies like BlockBerry Creative, JYP, and YG overwork mistreat their artists. Blockberry Creative’s primary source of income comes from a girl group named Loona.
Loona has 12 members in total and are diligent workers stated their choreographer, Kim Hwayoung. Hwayoung and the Loona members have yet to be paid to this day after working under BBC for almost 7 years now. This company was and still is going through a severe financial crisis due to the company being in debt of nearly 8 million USD.
The staff, stylists, and producers finally had enough and came together to demand their payments. Even outside workers were ordered to halt all work because BBC failed to pay them. Speaking of mistreatment, this isn’t the only idol group being overworked in the K-pop industry.
Other idol groups like Twice, Got7, Blackpink, Red Velvet, 2NE1, ITZY, and many more. The idol groups Twice, Got7, and ITZY all are being mistreated by JYP, more specifically Got7. An idol is a person who is respected, loved, and even heavily admired by their fandom.
Additionally, other major issues with JYP are oversexualized minors, body shame, mistreatment, pressuring his idol groups, eating disorders, and weight issues. Tzuyu Twice’s maknae, which in Korean means being the youngest in either boy or girl group. Tzuyu being the youngest really didn’t stop JYP from making her do a sexy theme for a commercial, LG CF. Weirdly enough this brings the next topic to light, scandals, and misogynists in the industry.
Scandals and Misogynists
Unfortunately, the issues in the K-pop industry don’t stop there. YG’s old CEO, Yang Hyun-suk is very discriminatory against women. BigHit/HYBE has the biggest scandal of all in the K-pop industry. HYBE had their first girl group called Glam back in 2012 with their debut song ‘party’.
Glam (Girls Be Ambitious) was 5 member girl group, and a bit later they were four member group. Kim Si Won (Dahee) one of the members of Glam committed a terrible crime. Dahee and a model named Lee Ji-Yeon blackmailed a male Korean actor over a video for money. The male Korean actor was none other than Lee Byung-hun. Who was the true victim in this case?
Slave Contracts
Many children start training to become an idol at the ages of 14-17, sometimes even younger. Some of the trainees don’t make it to the debut day after spending many years of training. When they do make their debut they are pressured into signing these slave contracts. Feeling they have no choice they blindly agree to sign it because the idols fear that they won’t be able to get screen time or lack lyric lines.
A slave contract is a long-term contract between their management agencies and the idols. Long-term contracts can be as long as 10 through 14 years, or even more. However, the normal K-pop contract can last for five to seven years. Also, the slave contract implies degrading future idols and controlling their every move in their companies.
Suicides
So much pressure on the idols in the K-pop industry, especially on the senior idols. A few of the senior idols that are no longer alive are Choi Jin-Ri (Sulli), Goo Hara, and Kim Jonghyun. Goo Hara was a member of the girl group KARA and was close friends with Sulli member of F(X). At that time Jonghyun and Sulli were under the same company and were both being heavily pressured in the over-competitive industry.
Although they were both under the same company, they were treated differently. Sulli was a soloist and an F(X) member, she was very passionate about speaking up when it came to cyberbullying, women’s rights, and mental health issues. However, speaking up about those topics was not uncommon at all in the K-pop industry.
Written by Tiffany Fleming
Sources:
HSI: The dark side of the K-pop Industry
Koreaboo: 13 Extremely Disturbing Stories Of Sasaengs That Went Too Far
SKPOP: 5 longest-running K-pop groups as of 2021 by Vibha Hegde
MIUR: K-pop Revealed: what are “slave contracts”? by Giorgia Bellusci
SeoulSpace: Top 20 Kpop Entertainment Companies – Ranked
People: Inside the Heartbreaking Series of K-Pop Suicides: ‘The Loneliness Settles In,’ Says Singer Amber Liu by Brianne Tracy
World Of Buzz: 7 K-Pop Stars Who Tragically Committed Suicide Due to Depression by Renushara
Featured and Inset Image Courtesy of Christian Zacharias’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
